F.I.T. E-Museum Expands Online Collection

Vixen

–The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology expanded its online collection earlier this month with an additional 875 images of more than 600 couture dresses, shoes, accessories and other objects included in the overhaul, more than doubling its existing inventory.

The Museum at FITThe “Mondrian” dress: a sleeveless chemise in ivory wool jersey with pieced geometric design of black stripes and single red color block.

The upgrade stems from the planning stages of the museum’s trilingual book, “Fashion Designers, A-Z: The Collection of The Museum at FIT,” which is to be published in November by Taschen. “Because of the photography and writing involved, we thought what a wonderful opportunity to put new photographs of our clothes online and vastly enlarge our collection,” said Dr. Valerie Steele, the museum director.

The expansion marks the beginning of a series of additions to the museum’s Web site. Starting in September, the museum will introduce 50 additional objects each month. F.I.T. also plans to present exhibitions featured over the last 15 years by next year. By February, the e-museum will post a Shoe Obsession exhibition to display more than 4,000 shoes.

In the immediate future, the museum plans to synchronize with its Pinterest account (holding 67 boards and 1,811 pins as of this posting) and integrate a “pin it” button on each image.